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Lewis Hamilton, fresh from a win at Austin, Texas last Sunday, was the fastest driver in both of Friday's practice sessions in Brazil. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Lewis Hamilton stole the thunder of the two Formula One World Championship contenders by topping both sessions in Brazil as he kicked off his final weekend for McLaren. Heavy rain has been predicted all week for Sunday and possibly Saturday, but Friday was hot and sunny, and as so often in such conditions drivers struggled for grip.

Judging the times was made even more complex than usual by the fact that Pirelli gave the teams some extra 2013 prototype tires which could only be used in today's sessions. Times were set with a mixture of current and future rubber, while the hotter afternoon conditions meant generally speeds in the first practice session were faster than FP2, which is unusual.

With or without the new rubber, Hamilton is clearly in inspired form, and wants to follow up his United States Grand Prix win with a victory in his final race for his current team.

Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel got preparations for his title defense off to a good start by being second in both sessions after a trouble-free day, while he was backed up by Red Bull Racing teammate Mark Webber, who was third in both.

“Today I think was a good day for us,” said Vettel. “We had no major problems, we had a decent long run in the end. Obviously, it was very hot, everyone I think was sliding a lot. It's the usual Brazil.

“I think everyone suffered the same kinds of problems, traction, stability, etc etc. We have to do our homework now, no matter what the weather forecast says, we'll see what comes tomorrow morning.

“It's a bit unknown what's going to come. I think so far we can be happy.”

Regarding preparing for a wet race, he said: “More or less we put the rain tires and go from there.”

Jenson Button and Felipe Massa took fourth place in the morning and afternoon sessions respectively, while the symmetry of the top three was repeated by Fernando Alonso, who was fifth in both.

Meanwhile heading into his last race Michael Schumacher was a solid sixth in FP2.

"It was a reasonably good day, and we kept working on our planned program." Schumacher said. "However, the predictions for Sunday at the moment are for rain, so there may be totally different conditions then. We therefore have to see what we can make of today's data and transform it into a good qualifying and, even better, a good race."

It was a largely uneventful day on the track, but off it there was major news as Esteban Gutierrez was confirmed at Sauber for 2013, and Charles Pic at Caterham.